The game started with equal aggression from both teams, creating opportunities on goal for both teams early.
The first goal of the game came early when junior Morgan Bumby took a corner kick and junior Olivia Mends used her body to find the back of the net.
“I didn’t think anybody got a solid touch on it once it was in the box,” junior Morgan Bumby said. “I just kept watching, I thought the keeper had it but then I saw it slowly roll in and I just thought, ‘Well, we will take it.'”
One close call was when sophomore goalie Maddie Boyken blocked a shot with her hand in the boxb allowing it to take a bounce right in front of the goal and she deflected another shot allowing it to barely miss the goal. Going into half, it was 1-0 in the Bruins favor.
As second half began the Bruin girls were in possession. Looking to score again to get further ahead of troy, the Bruins had many attempts on goal but couldn’t find a way to finish them. On a break away for Troy, Boyken was forced to slide to protect the ball, resulting in a collision with a Troy player. She had a foul called on her in the box and got a concussion.
Entering the game just in time for the penalty kick was first-time goalie, senior Brett Fuller, who is normally a defender. She was appointed the back up goalie because junior Aubrie Cornell was injured.
“I was scared to go in as goalie,” Fuller said. “But I couldn’t ask for a better defensive line not to let through any hard shot.”
With a shot impossible to stop, the score was tied. After two hard fought over time halves, the Bruins had a few second chances, but were still not able to follow up with a goal, resulting in a round of penalty kicks, which seemed unfair to force a first time goalie into.
Fuller took the first for the Bruins and put hers away. Then she was on defense. She was able to stop one of the shots and guessed right on a few of the other shots. The Bruins ended up falling 3-4 in PKs.
“We fought the entire 100 minutes,” Bumby said, “and when you get down to PKs with a goalie who’s never really played before, there’s not much you can do.”
Entering this game, the RB girls were down four of their starting players from injury or sickness, and by the end of the game, two more had fallen. The absences created gaps that needed to be filled by everyone, who worked to pick up the slack.
“This team seems to get tighter and tighter through each injury and illness,” Coach Anne Felts said. “I’m incredibly proud of the way they fought through it tonight. We gave them a run for their money tonight with pure heart.”
By Katrina Fox
